The Fugitive Cow - Captured at Last!
Yvonne at large.
Her plight caught the imagination of a nation; she was described as a "freedom fighter for the animal-loving German republic"; she resisted the lures of a bull whose charms rivalled George Clooney's, the pleas of an animal whisperer and the bond with her long-lost son; but now Yvonne, the intrepid Bavarian milking cow who roamed free for three months, has been captured.
A German farmer spotted Yvonne, on whom the long solitary vigil was seemingly taking its toll, staring at his herd of cows. "She went back in the woods when she saw us," Konrad Gutmann, 46, said. "I got up behind her and my daughter gathered the cows in one corner of the field." Eventually, they managed to herd Yvonne into the field and summoned her new owner, the Gut Aiderbichl Animal Sanctuary, who had previously bought her for €600.
The sanctuary confirmed that Yvonne had been transported to her new home and reunited with her two year old son, Friesi, and her sister, Waltraud. Although, if reports are to be believed, Yvonne did not go quietly.
It was back in May that Yvonne, fattened up for slaughter, sensed that something was wrong and broke free from her field and fled for the hills. For the next three months she lived a feral life, grazing amongst the fir trees of nearby forests, and consistently eluding capture.
After a near collision with a police car, the drama stepped up when a warrant was issued giving hunters carte blanche to shoot her on sight, lest she cause an accident. Animal Rights activists surged up against such an order and the search for the cow intensified.
But Yvonne outwitted them all. Despite one tabloid newspaper offering a €10 000 reward for anyone who could capture the fugitive, nobody succeeded. Even when Ernst the bull, possessor of a "deep baritone moo" and described as "the George Clooney of bulls" was brought in, Yvonne stayed away. Her long-lost son, believed dead, was found and used as bait. It failed. A Swiss animal communicator, Franziska Matti, was called in to talk to Yvonne. She reported back that "she said that she was fine but didn't want to come out of hiding,"
The media snatched at the story. Lauded as a "freedom fighter," helicopters with heat-detectors were hired by a newspaper, only to see her "run away like a weasel" through the trees. And just when it seemed that Yvonne was destined to spend the rest of her days as a free cow, she was caught.
Tranquilised and transported to her new sanctuary home, she has nonetheless been saved from her original fate: the dinner table. She will now spend the rest of her (captive) life, roaming Austrian pastures with her son and sister.
With Strangles Awareness Week just around the corner (5-11 May), vets are being encouraged to share a survey about the disease with their horse-owning clients.
